“I think Muslims have become the new Negroes in America. They are being mistreated at airports, by the Immigration, everywhere.” — Jermaine Jackson, less talented brother of Michael and a convert to Islam himself.
If by “new Negroes” he facetiously means a new, unfairly treated victim group, then race hustlers Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton aren’t likely to be amused because nobody horns in on their territory without a fight. But forget about Muslims for a moment. If you’re looking for “new Negroes,” how about starting with the 3,000 dead in the 9/11 attacks? Surely Jermaine remembers them. They weren’t just mistreated, they were crashed, burned, incinerated and/or buried under tons of rubble.
But those 3,000 were merely a tiny random portion of a much larger group of new Negroes known as . . . “Americans.” And a regular rainbow coalition of new Negroes it is, too, in that no one is excluded on account of race, color, creed or what have you. The downside is, it reflects the fact that every last one of us is a potential target for the Islamo-nutzoids who, if we stood around and did nothing for fear of offending Muslims, Arabs or “Arab-looking” people, would obliterate us all.
Come on, Jermaine. Do you really believe Muslims are the “new Negroes” in America? According to 9/11 commissioner John Lehman “it was the policy (before 9/11) and I believe remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning because that’s discriminatory.” In other words, anything even approaching an inordinate amount of scrutiny of them is expressly forbidden. Does that sound like mistreatment of Muslims to you?
Jermaine’s less than realistic comments about the tribulations of Muslims in America were actually made in the Gulf Arab state of Bahrain where he was touring about, speaking at Koranic centers and universities. Ostensibly, he was there to promote understanding between Muslims and his fellow Americans, but it’s hard to figure how that’s going to happen when he says things like the following: “I do not agree with the U.S. government. What they are saying about Muslims and Arabs is all propaganda and brainwashing.” Huh? The official line of the U.S. government, from President Bush on down, has not wavered since 9/11 and it has been to repeatedly state, ad nauseam, that Islam is one of the world’s great religions, that Islam is a religion of peace, that our quarrel is with terrorism not Islam, blah, blah, blah, etc., etc., ad infinitum.
But Jermaine, whose musical fortunes have not been so kind of late, and have never even come close to those of his “Bad” brother Michael, has apparently embarked on his very own “Bad” tour (as in, America is the “bad” guy), minus the songs and dance moves. Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has long been a pro-Western, pro-American kingdom, but one has to wonder if that will still be the case after Jermaine is finished bad-mouthing his own country.
If Jermaine really wants to promote understanding between Muslims and Americans, then rather than running around the Gulf telling tall tales about America’s mistreatment of Muslims, he might work on convincing the Muslim world to adopt a little more tolerance than is reflected in their current belief system, which is basically that anyone who isn’t Muslim is a contemptible infidel deserving of violent death.
What in the world was Jermaine Jackson thinking, anyway, when he decided to become a Muslim? Has he ever taken a good long look at what the Islamic world is like, by and large? Forget about “new Negroes.” We’re talking about old, surly and embittered “Negroes,” and who could blame them since so many of them languish in some of the most backward, squalid, intolerant and/or undemocratic countries this planet has to offer. If this is what the faith has done for its adherents after fourteen centuries, a brother might just as well go atheist.
Did Jermaine become a Muslim because a lot of black guys do it and therefore it’s cool? Was it because a lot of people in Africa are Muslim and therefore it’s a “Roots” kind of a thing? Was it because once upon a time (and I emphasize “once upon a time”) Islam was the world’s premier civilization and part of that civilization encompassed parts of Africa, and since he’s an “African-American,” ascribing historical greatness to Africa and becoming a part of that is a self-esteem booster? Or was it simply to reject Christianity because it’s a “white man’s” religion?
My guess is some combination of all of the above. Whatever the reason, Jermaine Jackson has about as much business being Muslim as a fish has need of a bicycle. Or something like that.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”